An Elephant at the Seaside

Probably one of the most generous and appreciated of the gifts given to my parents when they left Mombasa in 1961 was this painting by their good friend Commander John Hall, which showed the view from the upstairs balcony of the last house we lived in along Cliff Avenue. All the things my parents would have remembered were squeezed in, including - though I've cut it off in my photograph - the coastguard station at 2 with a flag flying at the masthead indicating a ship coming up from the south. The station was sited on Ras Serani, the headland of peace, below which, at 1, is an elephant taking a swim off the reef. We always called it 'the elephant' but it was, in fact....

....the remains of a ship, the Ahmadi, which came ashore in 1909 while attempting to enter port at night without a pilot. She had over 400 passengers and crew aboard but all were landed safely, along with their baggage and much of the cargo.

An enquiry found that the master and crew had acted correctly, and put down the cause of her loss to strong currents.  Although every effort was made to re-float the ship, she was declared a total loss and, over the subsequent years, most of her fixtures and fittings were salvaged.

Many thanks to Kevin Patience for pictures and background story.

Kevin's book is 'Shipwrecks & Salvage on the East African Coast'.